International Conference on Emerging Trends for Sustainable Development

International Conference on Emerging Trends for Sustainable Development and Human Capacity Building in the Third World Nations (ICETSDHCB 2014)  - 28th to 31st May 2014 , Legon, Accra, Ghana.

In the last few years, the concept of rural sustainable development and human capacity building attracts many academics, politicians, and community activist around the world to take part in it.  This engagement has stimulated a great deal of research and experimentation in this field that varies widely in its content and practice.

Sustainable community development in Niger Delta: The Andoni-Opobo-Nkoro model

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In 1956, oil was discovered in commercial quantity in Oloibiri, present day Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta region. From that time till date, Niger Delta ecology has never been the same again. The environment is gradually being ruined; communities face possibility of extinction; the local economy, hitherto sustained by agriculture, has collapsed due mainly to shift in focus to oil; water resources have vanished, and the organic social fabric of communities destroyed, leading to perpetual social disorder and fewer youths making education a priority. The consequences of oil discovery, exploration and exploitation have been harsh and enormous in the Niger Delta.

Young African scientists will lead sustainable environment development

Retired scientist Brad Brown belongs to the NAACP, a Florida, US-based civil rights organisation for ethnic minorities in the United States. The South Florida Times reports that Brown now consults to SA based Project ACCESS - a company providing specialist services to various projects in Africa.

Climate Conversations - Collaboration key to easing South Asia crises

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Achieving development despite fast depleting natural resources and without compromising on needs of the future generations is today a serious challenge for planners, policymakers, researchers and scientists in South Asian countries, and collaboration will be crucial.

Zimbabwe: The Corporate - Citizenship Versus Social Responsibility

Image by Tom Raftery via Flickr

Profit is as normal to corporations as breath is to people. The nature of businesses requires that they make profit, in their day to day existence. Humans breathe to live, but do not live for breath. Likewise companies make profits to exist.

They do not exist for profit, but rather to be citizens with rights and obligations, as well as being accountable to society.

Nigeria requires $10 billion to achieve sustainable power generation

Nigeria requires $10 billion to achieve sustainable power generation and distribution in the next 10 years, the Commissioner, Government and Consumer Affairs of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, Dr. Ibrahim Abba, has said.

He stated this at the Power Consumer Assembly forum held in Sokoto, Sokoto State yesterday.

Africa: Ecosystem Management Pivotal in Securing a Green Economy

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Beijing — The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) today co-organized a High-level International Forum on Ecosystem Management and Green Economy. The forum aimed to contribute to the success of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, popularly known as Eio+20,

Zimbabwe: Why the Asian Tigers Have Left Africa Behind

Why do they overfly Africa to all the distant lands at the extreme ends of the world, when they can similarly invest in nearby Africa and reap rich returns? "Investment in Africa yields the highest returns than anywhere else in the world," Mahathir thundered!

The usual "African politicians are corrupt" and "it is a difficult place to do business" mantra cannot quite explain the behaviour of the "private investors from developed nations" towards Africa. There is something more than that.

African Journalists Challenged to find Balance Between Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice

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About 600 African journalists attending the 15th Highway Africa Conference in Cape Town South Africa have been challenged to suggest ways in which Africa can find a balance between environmental sustainability and social justice on the continent.

MTN Group Corporate Affairs Executive, Rich Mkhondo made the call at a dinner hosted by MTN South Africa to welcome the delegates from across Africa

Surfing the Radio Waves for Sustainable Agriculture

While the use of mobile phones is rapidly surging across Africa, access gaps persist between urban and rural users. But a new generation of social entrepreneurs is remedying this problem by combining new and old media to reach rural populations.

Twenty-nine-year-old Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu is one of such entrepreneurs who sees the mobile telephony gap as a call to innovate.

Rebuilding Libya - the task ahead

With Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule over Libya seemingly at an end, the onus rests with the National Transitional Council to first stabilise and then reconstruct its infrastructure.

Building democratic states is complex and challenging at the best of times.

After violent conflict, this task is additionally complicated by the need for peace to be secured, institutions comprehensively reformed - if not built from scratch - and civil society and political culture reinvigorated.

Let's mine, not undermine

The ANC Youth League and South Africa's mining giants can find a way forward to turn the nationalisation 'threat' into an opportunity instead, writes Cyril Ramaphosa

Photograph by: Tyrone Arthur

" 'Transformation of the mining industry is therefore an important litmus test of our ability to transform our economy, and, by implication, our society' "

Anyone who wishes to see South Africa becoming a successful and prosperous country should welcome initiatives that are aimed at reducing poverty and inequality and making our economy more inclusive.

Africa investment urged to boost world economy

With an ailing US economy, European debt battles and Japan rebuilding after a crisis, investors should be looking south -- to Africa, the head of the African Development Bank said.

Investing in the continent at a time when developed countries' economies are struggling would boost the world economy, Donald Kaberuka told AFP in an interview in Washington this week.

Africa is rich in mineral wealth and proven oil reserves, has a growing, urban middle class and undeveloped infrastructure.

AfDB, Denmark establish sustainable energy fund for Africa

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Denmark have entered into a technical cooperation agreement to establish a sustainable energy fund for Africa (SEFA). With a budget of US$57 million, the SEFA's objective is to provide technical capacity building and capital for investment to support sustainable energy provision for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Africa over a five-year period.

S Africa keen for economic partnership

South Africa is keen to build economic partnership with Pakistan and for the purpose it is making all out efforts for increasing interaction between business communities in two countries.
South-South cooperation is corner stone of foreign policy of South Africa, this was said by the Acting High Commissioner of South Africa in Pakistan Mr Cassim Peer while talking to LCCI Acting President Sheikh Mohammad Arshad at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday. LCCI Executive Committee members Dr Shahid Raza, Marghoob Shakir Izhar, Mian Zahid Javaid, Ch Wajid Ali and Sheikh Mohammad Ayub also spoke on the occasion.

S.Africa's economic recovery still weak: Nene

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's economic recovery is not sustainable yet and is still relying on loose monetary and expansionary fiscal policies, deputy Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said on Wednesday.
Nene's comments suggest there is a case for delaying interest rate increases until the recovery is more broad-based.
Reserve Bank chief economist Monde Mnyande said last week monetary policy could remain favourable.
The Reserve Bank has left the repo rate steady at 5.5 percent this year, after reducing it by 650 basis points between December 2008 and December 2010.

Civil society voices frustration, anger over broken promises to LDCs

Image via Wikipedia Announcing both hard data and feelings about the lack of progress toward achieving sustainable development and poverty eradication in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), the Civil Society Forum's representatives have said they are not happy at all. “We are angry; we are frustrated,” said Dr. Arjun Karki, chair and spokesperson of the Civil Society Steering Committee, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday when the committee released its report on the LDCs at the Fourth UN Conference on LDCs in İstanbul (May 7-13) outlines an ambitious plan of action to lift the world's 48 LDCs out of the spiral of poverty. “The civil society Global Report provides information and statistics that clearly illustrate how the Brussels Program of Action, drawn up for the third LDC conference in 2001 failed to make a significant dent in the poverty and vulnerability in LDCs,” Karki said.

Education & Women Entrepreneurs Are Key To Sustainable Economic Growth In Africa

Image by World Economic Forum via Flickr

African economies have made important strides in improving their economic environments in recent years, but much remains to be achieved to ensure that recent strong growth continues. In particular, African governments must better harness the region’s resources through stronger integration into international trade and finance, improved educational systems, enhanced entrepreneurial opportunities for women and developing their tourism sectors.

Ending poverty in Asia-Pacific’s least developed nations

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Tehran : A UN senior official has said that for the people of Asia’s least developed countries the past decade was marked by multiple global economic crises and setbacks.
According to a press release issued by the UN Information Center (UNIC) here on Tuesday, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific made the statement in her recent article the full text of which is as follows:

Slow Food's 1,000 Sustainable Gardens for Africa

One thousand gardens are blooming across Africa, where the international organization Slow Food is helping schools, villages, and other communities grow fruits, vegetables, and herbs using sustainable water management, pest repellent, and fertilizing techniques. The project also aims to protect varieties of indigenous crops that would otherwise fall victim to the monoculture practices of large farms.
"A vegetable garden means healthy, local food for the community, the passing-on of knowledge from the old to the young, and a reinforced spirit of collaboration," Slow Food writes in its manifesto about the "A Thousand Gardens in Africa" project, which is being organized under the auspices of its Terra Madre network of food communities.